Our baby BOY is here! And I do have to say he is one gorgeous little man! I kept on thinking he would come early, he came at 39 weeks and he is perfectly healthy! Life with a newborn is crazy so at almost 3 weeks old (already!) I am finally able to update this blog with our news and to tell the story of his birth!

Sorry this might be long, 

3am Tuesday morning (10th) I woke up to contractions that were pretty uncomfortable, but they were manageable. I woke Matthew up at 4am to tell him that I think it was baby day and if he could, please stick around for today. He had to go to PT to let his boss know I was in labor then he came back home to help me out. Around 5am I started to spot, which after not seeing my period for 10 months, it was a bit strange to see blood again. We tried to watch Karate Kid 2 (we actually never finished it) on Netflix's but every time I had a contraction I made Matthew stop all the noise and rub my back. I was determined not to be 'that" screaming pregnant lady that was in labor.

Contractions started to get closer together, about 5 mins apart. Around 10a.m we went to the hospital, got hooked up to the monitors and contractions were 5 mins apart and I was 4cm dilated about 80% effaced. After being there for an hour they decided to let me go get some food and walk about to get the contractions closer together. 

Matthew and I went and ate at Red Lobster, it is super hard to not look like it was in labor while I was there. I kept on having to take breaks and breathe through them I had Dh rub the snot out of my back every time I felt one coming. I was really worried my water would break spontaneously while we were there, I was glad it did not. 

After we ate, we went to Good Will to walk around, I found a scalp scraper and it felt so good to have Matthew rub it on my back. After Good Will, we walked the mall, the contractions were still pretty bad and I had to stop and breath through some of them We had those annoying people with the sales cart trying to sell us stuff or touch me, I am sure I gave them the look of death when they talked to me. After walking for four hours, and making my legs swell up like balloons, we went back to the hospital. 

Contractions were still 5 mins apart, 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. They said they could keep me, start some pitocin (basically inducing me) or go home on some pain meds to help me sleep and to eat some more food. So we went home because I was afraid if they induced me I might end up with a c-section or it might prolong the labor. 

The meds did not touch the pain, I maybe slept for an hour. I was glad Matthew got some rest though because he was dead tired and I wanted him to be alert for when Samuel was born. 

The contractions started getting so bad I could not eat because it would come back up. I felt bad that Matthew had to clean up after me. I tried taking a shower and a bath to help with the pain, it did help some. 

At 11pm we went back to the hospital because the contractions were horrible. The nurses saw I was in a lot of pain and got me into a room pretty fast. My contractions were 3 mins apart,  I was 5cm dilated and full effaced and on the pain level... off the charts. I requested an epidural because I could not relax enough to let the contractions do their job plus I have been in labor for over a day now. Got an epidural around 3am and oh my goodness! Did it help! I felt great. 

I had a great night nurse! We pretty much talked the whole night, her name was Lisa. She was amazing! I could not sleep because I was too anxious for Samuel to get here.

Around 6am they started pitocin because my contractions started spacing out and I was at 7cm. 9am they had me start practicing pushing. Samuel was sunny side up so they kept on rotating me to try and get him to move to face down. I really did not like rolling because with the epidural, my legs no longer felt apart of me... just like dead weight. I tried moving my toes and I could not. It was so strange to be not be able to move your toes!!

 Right when they said it was time to do real pushes, I notice I could move my toes!! Uh oh!!!! The epidural was wearing off and they did not want to give me more because it would take a while to get back into my system and it might delay birthing. I was so mad that it wore off. 

They kept on rotating me when I was pushing to encourage Samuel to turn. When I thought I could not take anymore of it (mainly the rolling back and forth) they said they could feel his head and he was crowing!!! Then they said don't push! We need to get the doctor!!! I was like...what??? He was MIA for 15 mins... I was not happy. I was like.. this baby is coming if he is here or not!!! Finally he showed up and at the last moment Samuel turned and came face down!

 Samuel handled labor very well, he had very little heart decals. As soon as he was out I started bleeding heavily. They took Samuel away to get cleaned up, I only saw him for a few seconds because they were trying to get me to stop bleeding. It took 45 mins for the bleeding to stop. It was crazy. I retained some of the membranes and tore a little on the inside but I was lucky that I did not tear, just some scraps and skid marks. I got some stitches on the inside.

 Because I lost so much blood I was really out of it and in a lot of pain from when they had to put the stitches in. I thought I was going to black out a couple of times. I finally got to hold Samuel and nurse him for 15 mins before they took him away. They were super worried I would need a blood transfusion. They gave me a ton of pain meds and something to help with my throwing up. About 3 hours later I finally was feeling better and was able to really enjoy Samuel. I was up for about 30 of my 33 hours of labor so I was tired but for some reason I was still felt wide awake.  

I have to say the labor part was not bad but the after math did hurt a lot worse, every time the rubbed my belly to get my uterus to clamp down, I thought my body was going to break in half. I hated when they touched my belly!!! I would almost be in tears every time they rubbed it.
 
They kept us in the hospital for two days to watch my blood count. I am super glad Samuel is very healthy, he weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 20inches long! He was born on July 11th at 11:29am He was much bigger than what I was expecting!!

First week I was super sore and could not walk for very long or very fast. Samuel at first had a tough time nursing but around 6 days he finally got it and is now nursing like a champ. I will update more about what so far has happened in his young life but for now here are "some" pictures of him! 


 
38 weeks?? 38 weeks? That seems so unreal to me. Was it not just yesterday that I was looking at a pregnancy test? Or the first time I saw our baby at 10 weeks? Or baby looking so much like a baby at 21 weeks? Then what seemed like forever to see our little one in 3D ultrasound? And now we will meet our little one in a couple of weeks... amazing! 

I am so anxious to meet our baby. I keep on trying to get everything ready and of course I never feel like I have done enough. My energy level comes and goes all the time. One moment I am cleaning the house like a mad women the next I cannot not even move off the couch to go potty! 

Nursery still need to be worked on... waiting for our crib which Matthew's family bought for us! So happy about that and very thankful to them. I am trying to get Matthew to hang my decorations up but that boy seems to try and avoid it at all cost! I might have to do it myself...

My things are packed for the hospital and so are babies. Waiting on Matthew to pack his things so I suppose if he needs to he can come back and forth from the hospital which I was hoping we would avoid just in case he misses something important! 

I cannot wait to be myself again! These hormones have me sad one moment, angry the next. I try and keep myself in check and so far everyone has said I have been a great pregnancy person but it has been hard on me to control myself. I get mad at Facebook all the time, I even deleted some people, though I really did needed to deleted them, I would never want those people around my baby. I find my shyness is long gone. When someone angers me on the street you know I will respond! Before then, I would have brushed it aside. 

We have already had some people trying to tell us how to raise OUR baby, which frankly, is super annoying! I try and not blow-up on them. I am lucky my mom has handle some of it because you know I would have gone after them.

Sorry, got off on a vent! Ha ha ha.

The last week has been hard on my poor body. I don't know how some women get pregnant right off the bat after having a kid! I know my body needs a rest. Back hurts a lot, stomach feels like it cannot be stretched anymore. Everything keeps on swelling up. 

But... it is worth it to have gotten this far. I wanted to get to 38 weeks so my baby will be healthy. Now we are in the waiting game for our baby. Hard to believe we will have a little one in the next couple of weeks!! I hope to have him/her next week sometime. Before my next appointment because I think my doctor might stripe my membranes! And that sounds painful! 

Well, better get back to nesting and getting ready to take my friends to the air pot. Hopefully I shall have a belly bump picture to update everyone wo

 
Your Baby Week 38On average, at this time, a baby weighs about 6.8 pounds (3100g) and measures about 14 inches (35cm) from crown to rump and 21 inches (47cm) total in length.

Your baby is still growing and gaining weight. Your baby may gain as much as 1 ounce (28g) a day at this point.

If your baby is a boy, his testes should have descended into the scrotum by this time. Your doctor will check that his testes have descended after delivery. About one percent of boys will have undescended testes.

Your baby has been building up waste in his intestines for the past few weeks. Called meconium, this waste is greenish-black and is made up of material from blood cell break down, shedded cells from the lining of the intestine, skin cells and lanugo shed into the amniotic fluid and swallowed, as well as other sources. Meconium is the first waste your baby passes and the first diapers that you change will probably be comprised of this greenish-black, tar-like substance. There is also a chance that your baby will excrete meconium before delivery and have some covering his body.